The Nut Job [Film Review]

Looking for a family-friendly movie that your kids will love? Check out The Nut Job, an animated comedy about the animals in Liberty Park who are facing a food shortage before winter.

Here’s the story: Surly the Squirrel (voiced by Will Arnett) refuses to be a team player – as his name suggests – and tries to find food only for himself, instead of for the whole group.

But after he inadvertently causes the tree storing the nuts to catch on fire, he is banished from the park by the leader of the park animals, Raccoon (voiced by Liam Neeson).

Surly must now brave the big city, and in the course of his explorations, he happens on a large nut shop. He decides to plan a daring caper, and steal the nuts for himself without sharing with the park animals. However, when the lovely Andie (Katherine Heigl) goes looking for food, she and Surly become unwilling partners in their quest to steal the nuts.

But wait! Unbeknownst to the furry would-be thieves, some human criminals are using the nut shop as a front to rob a bank!

The flick is filled with all the obligatory nut puns and fart jokes, which might make adults roll their eyes, but are guaranteed to crack up the kids in the theater

Pro tip: Make sure to stay for the credits! One of the highlights of the movie is an animated PSY singing and dancing to “Gangnam Style.”

The Nut Job from Open Road Films is rated PG for “mild action and rude humor” and opens on Friday, January 17, 2014.